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Aviation History
1917
1917 - 1130.PDF
NOVEMBER I, 1917. THE TWIN-ENGINE A.E.G. BOMBING BIPLANE. IN the early days of the war it was the habit of the lay Pressto use the name Taube generically for all military machines of German origin, and this caused some confusion in some-times spreading the impression that the machines which figured in reports of fights in the air were of the Taubemonoplane type, when, as a matter of fact, this type of aero- plane had long since been abandoned by the Germans. Inthe same manner there would at the present moment appear to be the possibility of causing some confusion by assigning designers. Little was known of these machines, except thatthey Were believed to be made almost entirely of steel. The following particulars of the 1917 type A.E.G. bombersmay be of interest, since, as already mentioned, there is a possibility of these being employed for raids on this countryas well as the Gothas. The general arrangement will be clear from the accompanying perspective views and scale drawings,which latter should not be very far wrong in any dimension, although we cannot guarantee that they are absolutely correct. THE A.E.G. BOMBING BIPLANE.—Three-quarter front view. to all German aeroplanes carrying out bombing raids on thiscountry the designation " Gotha." As a matter of fact, it must not be assumed that these raiders are necessarily alwaysof the Gotha type, as Germany possesses others which would in all probability be capable of raids on England, for which theywith some amount of probability may be assumed to have been used. We are referring to the large twin-engine biplanesbuilt by the Allgemeine Elektrizitats Gesellschaft, and known as A.E.G. biplanes. The A.E.G. firm was, perhaps, one of the first in Germanyto turn its attention to machines of large dimensions, although not to such extent as the Capronis in Italy or the Handley-Pages in this country. One of the first A.E.G. twin-engine They have been plotted with the aid of the perspective views,with which they tally fairly accurately. 7^ Fundamentally the A.E.G. bomber resembles the Gothabiplanes, illustrated descriptions of which were published in our issues of July 12th and August 9th, 1917. In dimensions,however, the two machines differ considerably, the Gotha being somewhat larger. Also the A.E.G. has its two air-screws placed in front of the main planes, whereas in the Gotha they are " pusher " screws. As in the Gotha, the wingsof the A.E.G. are swept back, and are also placed at a dihedral angle, which appears to be greater in the bottom than in thetop plane. The span, it will be seen from the scale drawings, is the same for both planes, and amounts to 57 ft., while the THE A.E.G. BOMBING BIPLANE.—Three-quarter rear view. biplanes to become known to our pilots on the western frontmade its appearance during 1916, and was briefly described by M. Jean Lagorgette in our French contemporary I'Airophileof August, 1916. This machine had a long convered-in fuse- lage providing accommodation for the pilot and gunners,while the two engines were placed on the wings, sufficiently far out for the two tractor screws to clear the nose of thefuselage. The planes, of which the upper was slightly longer than the lower, were set at a dihedral angle, and were alsoswept Jjftck in,the1 inanner beloved by German aeroplane overall length is about 30 ft. The ailerons, which are. of apeculiar shape, are fitted to the top plane only, and are operated by a crank lever working in a slot in the plane asshown in one of the accompanying sketches. This arrange- ment, which will be familiar to our readers from descriptionsof Albatros biplanes, would appear to be in general favour with German designers, whereas it is rarely or never metwith in Allied machines. The tail planes, which are of the monoplane type, consistof fixed stabilising planes and a vertical fin, to which are
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